OT- Gold Cup US v. Canada
Well today the Nats kicks off its the Gold Cup to try and reach the confeds cup. The team seems a bit shaky due to injuries and maybe just because spain is amazing.
Personally, I think we have just way to much talent not to role into the final anyway to take on an on-form (albeit against shitty teams) Mexico. The final will be a toss up imo, however I am a shameless homer and think we find a way to pull it out 2-1. For today, I think we look rusty, but win 2-0.
My lineup of choice
howard
lichaj--boca--goodson--dolo (i love gooch but his form has been awful)
dempsey- bradley-spector (yes he is on form)- donovan (i realize edu or jones will pry start)
altidore--agudelo
I don't think bradley will ever leave the 4-4-2 so it is pointless to want a 4-5-1 (add jones) or a 4-4-1-1 (playmaker like maybe gasp adu)
Thoughts?
(Edit: Match is at 8 at Ford Field, to those going, enjoy)
i don't think we'll be rusty after that beatdown by spain.
we'll come out angry after aforementioned beatdown.. and take it to them early 3-1
when is the match?
follows the first game (I added to the op)
after the first one tonight which starts at 6:00 EST. Anyone going down? thinking of picking up tickets for $10 per
I'm heading down with some friends for both games today. I am not sure if you will be able to find them for $10. The cheapest they were selling for was $25, and from what I heard it almost sold out so they might be harder to come by.
I had two tickets around 20 yd line near USA bench but my "I plan on going but here's a ridiculous price for them" that I put on stubhub was met Saturday night.
ya have some guy on clist selling for $10 each. hes stuck with 12. they are on the 300 level but it would be worth it for $10 i think. always the possibility of moving down
$10 for any USA game is worth it. $10 for a USA game with the full roster trying to win in a tournament is absolutely worth it.
I know some people weren't happy with the spring game, but I think Denard will have a good grasp of the offense and I predict we win easy 10-3.
...be Onyewu's last gasp with the Nats. His size no longer makes up for his atrocious ball skills and aimless passing.
I love Gooch, but he just hasn't been the same since his injury. We have promising young CB that can take his place. The only problem is that BB never plays young promising players. How are these young guys supposed to get National experience if they never get PT.
Bad spelling and horrible grammar. Plus it'd probably be helpful if you didn't refer to the players with nicknames (boca, dolo, gooch, etc.) when most people here have no idea who the heck you are talking about.
it was even on topic for the world cup last year, i am assuming they know the nicknames of the stalwarts ...
if we decide to mark men in space tonight. I realize Spain is one of the best clubs out there, but watching their players roam free inside the 18 was really painful this weekend. I wonder if Canada will get much fan presence at Ford Field. It'd be cool to see a nice 70/30 split or something.
I think it will be interesting to see how many people make the trip from Ontario (and Canada at large i suppose, but to a lesser extent). If it's truly close to selling out, I'd imagine that we'll have some help from our neighbors. Wonder how home-friendly the crowd will be.
Despite it being near the border, I don't think there will be many Canadian fans. Soccer in Canada is like how it was in the U.S. 25 years ago - just completely off the national radar.
If the game were in Toronto or vancouver then fans would show up but not in Detroit on a Tuesday. The mens national team in Canada doesn't get a ton of support, mostly because
a) they haven't accomplished anything (other then the Gold Cup in '00) in ever and
b) a lot of Canadians who are soccer fans tend to associate more with the country their ancestry is from then Canada in regard to soccer.
I'm guilty myself of b), I was born and raised in Canada as were my parents but for soccer, I'm an England fan first and foremost. Anyway, it wouldn't surprise me to see a few thousand Canadians but I would expect the crowd to be 95% US fans.
You are exactly right. Being a soccer fan in Canada puts you in the vast minority. I grew up following soccer as well because my parents were from the UK as well. I played all my life and never followed our national team because they have always been horrible.
Soccer is much bigger now in Canada then it was when I was growing up, but it still has a long, long, long way to go before it would have the support of other sports. The national team has improved some over the past couple years, but in all honesty they are dreadful. I am an England supporter and have been since I was old enough to follow and until Canada can pprove they can compete on a regular basis (they have had the odd spell of playing well at times), I couldn't be bothered to follow them with any degree of regularity.
It would be nice to see them beat the USA, but I don't think there is any possible way that happens. Even though they got routed by Spain, people have to remember that Spain is probably the best team in the world right now and losing to them isn't shameful in any way.
I can understand b). The sport means everything to Europeans, whereas here it's just one of several. I kind of feel like they deserve to win more than the U.S./Canada does.
OTOH, I really want the U.S. to win the gold medal in Olympic basketball, and in the World Baseball Classic. Those are our games.
So long as Bradley doesn't turn to the 3-3-5...
I remeber in Jr. High our soccer team played a 3-3-4. It was the most wide open soccer I ever played in my lifetime and the coach really knew nothing about soccer but took on the job because no one else on staff wanted to. We had a lot of depth at striker so he decided on the 3-3-4 and we ended up winning the provincial championship.
I don't know if it was because no one had ever seen a team play in that formation or what, but we throttled the competition every game. In a 15 game regular season we 101 goals and gave up 11. The following season a coach with real experience decided to take over and changed formation to a 4-4-2 and with nearly an identicle roster we barely got through Provincial qualifying and lost in the second round. In the 15 games that season we scored 33 goals...
I can't even imagine playing in a 3-3-4. Maybe your coach was onto something. I don't think they even have that option in video games.
Is the game tonight on TV at all? If not, I might use this as an excuse to eat Slow's and get drunk on a weeknight.
My wife and I will be dining at Slow's for our pre-game meal. Perhaps we will see you there. I will look for the beard.
All the US's group stage games are on Fox Soccer Channel.
Hum. You got big huevos in saying that. Don't get to cocky amigo. Remember what happened 2 years ago in the final game. Thought so. Don't count out a team like Costa Rica, who can very well beat Mexico.
Damn Mexican fans are saying the same thing after their beatdown of El Salvador 5-0. The outcome is settled on the field. Don't let your huevos get to big.
We are covering the Gold Cup over at the JCB. SteveY has got a game preview up for the Canada match and yesterday posted a general tournament overview. If you're looking for more commentary on the match, check it out.
My predictions: Mexico vs Costa Rica and US vs Honduras in the semifinals.
I really like the Costa Rican team--they were oh so close to getting into the 2010 World Cup over surprise semifinalist Uruguay--but Mexico takes them down and will play the Yanks. From there, I dont know. I lean towards Mexico, but hope I am wrong.
Fox Soccer Channel will be carrying all the US's games plus all Qtr, Semi, and Finals games.
One of Univision or Telemundo has every game of the tournament I think.
USA/Canada game or Mavs/Heat game?
I will be attending the game tonight, my 3rd USMNT game. After driving to both Chicago and New Jersey for games, I'm relieved to finally attend one so close to home. Here's hoping Agudelo gets the start, and I'd love to see a Goodson-Ream central pairing, with Dolo and Boca outside. Gotta love seeing the young guns learn on the job.
It is my first chance to see the USMNT live, and I have to admit I am pretty excited. They should be able to take care of Canada and the group with relative ease since they are the superior team...but that is why they play the games. I am also interested to see how many Canadians show up...hopefully it is a very pro-US crowd tonight.
I like the 4-4-1-1 as long as we put Dempsey at the other forward position like how he plays at Fulham. I really like Jozy, but he can only play well if he has someone like Charlie Davies to play with. Altidore needs to make up his mind of how he is going to play. He needs to be a holding type of forward or actual make runs off the ball so that we have more options going forward.
I think Aguadelo has a chance to be very special player for us. He just needs to get more experience. Against Spain he tried to run at double teams wnen he could have laid it off for someone else.
The 4-4-1-1 line up seems to be the best for our level of players. I agree with how Clint Dempsey should be played, but I am not sold on Jozy Altidore yet. Not sure he has the scoring touch needed to be the last forward. I really have only seen him play in the World Cup and other friendlies and so far I have not seen enough from him to not give a younger player a chance like Agualdelo who has more of a nose for the goal. As long as the midfield shows faster passing and better foot skills we should be ok until the finals, anything less and we could get knocked out earlier then expected.
Altidore needs a complementary player or he completely disappears from games at times. Someone like Charlie Davies is perfect because he is willing to make runs off the ball to open up opportunities for himself and Jozy.
we ran the 4-5-1 the entire world cup and up until halfway through the Chile Friendly...
It works against superior competition to some extent, but it flops when we play teams we should beat (like Ghana)
4-5-1 is super defensive and lame and we don't have a scorer up top to work with a 4-5-1. We now run more of a 4-2-2-2 which works with our current talent (though we still don't have a true scorer)
We did not play a 4-5-1 in the world up. Did you watch the England game we ran a 4-4-2/4-2-2-2.
If you are saying we ran a 4-5-1 that means Jozy Altidore or Robbie Findley were playing in the midfield and that did not happen.
Findley played below Altidore. In my book, he was playing more of a CAM than a forwards role. Call it a 4-4-1-1 if you want, it wasn't a true 4-4-2 or a 4-2-2-2.
Maybe it's just my refusal to ever acknowledge Robbie Findley as a "forward" but I viewed the lineup as a 4-5-1. Or, more honestly, a 4-4-1 with Robbie Findley not counting as an actual footballer.
It makes June go by nice and fast. Then we just have to deal with July and August....somehow.
Starters: Howard; Cherundolo, Goodson, Ream, Bocanegra; Dempsey, Bradley, Jones, Donovan; Altidore, Agudelo
Subs: Onyewu, Edu, Wondolowski, Lichaj, Kljestan, Bedoya, Hahnemann
------------------------Howard------------------------
Chrerundolo---Goodson---Ream---Bocanegra
Dempsey------Bradley------Jones------Donovan
-------------Altidore-----------Agudelo--------------
edit: wasn't supposed to post here. sorry.
Anyone know of a good stream???
No Fox Soccer channel here. :(
Thank you! :)
I'd +1 if I could.
Whoops, double post.
Canada is gonna get spanked. They're trying to run a 4-3-3. It's not going to work.
Is it just me or is that field not near wide enough for soccer?
So theyre playing on sod and not the field turf?
Was wondering myself, why they didn't play on the Field Turf. Can anyone explain? Does the specific surface at Ford FIeld not allow for it, the US want sod for personal reasons, or does CONCAF or FIFA regulate that you need a real surface?
I believe FIFA regulates that all fields must be natural grass.